A chair fell in the LaVelle double chair’s loading area at Montana Snowbowl Sunday, the resort’s third day of operations for the season. “Earlier today, an incident occurred on LaValle chairlift that required us to temporarily halt lift service,” Montana Snowbowl said in a statement posted to Facebook. “We are grateful to report that no injuries occurred. Our maintenance department was able to inspect the lift and ensure it was safe to operate. LaVelle was then reopened to the public for the remainder of the afternoon.”

LaVelle Creek is a 1984 Riblet double. The incident is the latest in a string of unfortunate mishaps involing Riblet lifts at Snowbowl. In March of 2023, a Riblet chair hit a tower and broke apart on the TV Mountain lift, causing a child to fall. The Forest Service sent a notice of noncompliance to the resort, preventing the lift from operating until it was repaired for the following season. Prior to that incident, the Grizzly lift was rope evacuated due to a power outage in February 2021. Another chair fell from the LaVelle lift in January 2020, requiring a rope evacuation.

Snowbowl plans to close midweek this week and reopen on Friday, December 20th.

Update: Montana Snowbowl issued a second statement on Monday clarifying why the chair detached from the haul rope: “Yesterday, an empty chair collided with a lift operator, causing it to swing abnormally and subsequently become dislodged. This was a highly unusual and isolated incident. No one was injured, and the lift was thoroughly inspected and confirmed safe before resuming operations later that day.”